Yet another 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 (completed)

TB: thanks much. The historical grounding and focus on representing a particular prototype at a specific moment really has influenced how I've approached this, in a way that I see as being positive. I reckon I just need to get my executional abilities dialed in...

Pawel: Thanks for checking in, my friend. That's very kind. As a matter of fact I've been cracking away at it, starting with trying your advice.

If it was just a matter of rescribing, it would be no big deal, but getting those rivets clean enough was beyond me. Part of the problem was that, while there was still indentations (for the most part), the details on the surface kind of mushed around a little, so following the original detail looked sloppy.

I've worked way too hard on this to settle for mushy detail on the tops of the wings. 

So I'm back to the start, more or less. I can salvage a lot of the details, which will save time. I thought about doing the cockpit and wheel wells straight out of the box so I'd be back where I was in a weekend or so, but what's the fun in that? I was going to wait until I was a little farther along to post, but here's an update.

Round 2: Into the rabbit hole!

First thing is to go back to the refs, and start sorting out what's what. I want to get crisp, clear and deliberate looking detail. That means I need to know what everything is, or at least what it is actually supposed to look like.

F4F Walkaround is a good overview. Also, the National Aviation Museum has a good selection of virtual tours:

I made screenshots and annotated to help me clarify detail and decide what needs addressing in the kit.

I started with the electrical panel on the starboard side console, which comes as a blank surface when it's filled with switches and knobs. I'm assuming Tamiya originally intended this to be a decal, but somehow didn't impliment. I used .005" Evergreen sheet stock, and poked holes for the switches, which are made from sprue stretched to .004" (a little less than 1/4" diameter at 1/48), and used a Micro-mark punch to make holes for the voltmeter (on the left) and the larger knobs, which are .030" rod. After I took this shot, I added a switch cover on the top. The detail is still a bit vague, so I might try doing this again.

I've been reading up on DIY photoetching, so maybe that's a way to get really tight details for something like this. Or maybe I just need to realize that that box is 0.24 x 0.075" and there's a finite amount of clarity you can realistically squeeze in? 

After careful review of my refs, the port side console needs modifying as well. The supercharger lever (on the left pointing up) in every Wildcat cockpit shot is a shaft with round knob, but it's modeled square with a handle. That's going to have to go. Also, the elevator tab handle (lever pointed down) is way too long. 

A JLC razor saw (A little xmas present to myself... love!) makes quick work of the super charger. For the elevator trim, I cut off the last third or so (just eyeballing it) and then filed down the taper a little. A bit of stretched sprue forms the knob.

Here's the new supercharger lever. The pivot is punched .020" stock and the lever itself is aluminum tubing with CA for the ball. The ball is a bit big and a little off center, so I'm going to redo. The F4F has another bank of levers that sits kind of below the trottle which is not represented at all in the kit, so I'm going to scratch build.

There's another issue with this area, which is that it's pretty much impossible to get the two parts that make up the left console together without a visible joint and on the prototype that whole surface is one big piece. I've mostly filled it here, but then finally decided that the two controls aft of the rudder tab (the big chunky knob next to the throttle) aren't really sharply modeled enough to be worth preserving, so I cut them off. A dab of Mr Surfacer 500, a bit of light sanding, and now it's smooth. I'm going to recreate the controls later.

The rudder pedals get coils of stretched sprue to represent the springs. Way over scale, but you'll barely be able to see and after they're painted a have a dirty wash shouldn't be glaring. Not a high priority, but I might redo with finer sprue to get closer. After I took this shot I fixed the smudge on the right rudder pedal and then sanded down the walls a little to get them a little slimmer.

I also added a bit of stretched sprue to represent the needle on the dial at the top. The other two indicaters will probably get decals, especially since they're in the murk. 

This always bugged me but I couldn't think of a good way to deal last time. The control stick has the trigger molded on the top, but on the prototype it's in front, so you'd use your trigger finger. To address, I drilled a hole with an #80 bit and then glued in a bit of stretched sprue. After trimming and sanding to shape, it's a trigger. I then filed off the top button. 

So... down the rabbit hole. Next up should be refining the details, possibly trying to beat the work on some items, such as the electrical box, and then starting to pull together.  I've got a bunch of solder and lead wire in various sizes and am going to try to get as much of the plumbing in as I can. I sort of impressionistically added a bit here and there last time, but I want to get a lot more deliberate about it. It's one of the things that gives those cockpits their look.  

Thanks for looking!

-J

Johnny :

 I have read the whole thread !

 This was very interesting for many reasons . One thing is obvious , starting from a history has allowed you and your work to shine .

 Now this coupled with your perserverence and indomitable spirit to do it well , has resulted in a fine looking Aircraft . My hat is off to you . T.B.

Hello!

Any good news, Johnny? Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Johnny,thanks for the info on the 53 numbers, I did not know that.

I think I am going to to stay with Tamiya acrylics and future floor wax in the beginng stages of modelling , that way I can just use windex and back to the start if need be.

I think it is great having all these experenced guys here to help.

George

Pawel: This sounds character building, but it's worth a shot. Thanks so much for the advice and encouragement. 

Goldhammer: that definitely makes sense, thanks.

George: That was my thought as well. It's definitely not about the money. (I did even order the kit again.) There's two lines of thought I'm mulling:

1. The most direct path to completion would be to repair the damage. This would also hone my finishing skills. If I am unable to repair to my satisfaction, then I'm back to the new kit anyway.

2. Now that I've brought it so close to completion, there are so many things I think I can improve on (especially in the cockpit) that taking a bigger picture view of the overall process might be more beneficial. 

These are sort of interrelated thoughts. 

Regarding Foss's black 53, Cutting Edge decals has a discontinued sheet that comes up on Ebay and elsewhere from time to time under product # CED48120.

One thought—markings were managed at the unit level, and the guidelines weren't all that strict (or weren't carefully adhered to, what with fevered combat tempo and there being more important things to worry about) so there was a fair amount of variation, even within a squadron. Fun fact: Foss's plane was originally marked "13", but there was already a 13 at Cactus when he showed up, so they changed it to 53 in the field. From his book "Flying Marine":

Mentioning the fact that thirteen men flew in our flight reminds me of another circumstance. I got my first Zero that day, October 13, flying the Number 13 Grumman I'd brought in from the carrier four days before. Only by that time it 
had been renumbered. We made it Number 53, because there was already a Number 13 among our fighters. 

Which is all to say, unless you were being particuarly fastidious (nothing wrong with that!) you could probably get away with most any stencil of the approximate style and size. 

I'd just like to say how much I appreciate everyone's encouragement. It's really very much appreciated.

Cheers

-J

Hello!

Well, Johnny, thanks for your kind words! I just wanted to show you, that if you want it bad enough, almost every model is saveable! As for the rivets - like I wrote, get a nice awl, sharpen it and do those rivets one at a time. If you had a surface totally smooth, then you would need a tool - usually you disassemble an old alarm clock, take a wheel out of it and use this along with a ruler to get a string of evenly spaced rivets. But since you can still see where the rivets were before you sand everything, you just deepen the rivets with the awl, one at a time, and then after sanding the rivets still show. I'm currently working on OH-6A (you can see it in the Helicopters section) where I will have to rescribe and rivet those tiny helicopters. I already started doing the rivets on the inside, in the cockpits. It isn't vey hard to do. Good luck with your rescue and have a nice day

Paweł

If you get it saved to the point of rivets, how about a tape line to keep them straight, and mark the tape edge with a pencil dot at each point a rivet goes. Use a milimeter ruler to set the spacing.  Just a quick thought.

Pawel

First of all, that is a fine looking Beaufighter, my friend. Fine indeed. (I also love that you vacuformed the new canopy.)

Thanks for taking time out and for the thoughtful advice.

It's certainly worth a shot. And if it was just rescribing lines, I wouldn't give it a second thought. My worry is that getting the rivets back will require a level of precision that I'm not capable of at the moment. If they aren't lined up straight and spaced evenly, they'll look awful. And it just isn't a Grumman without them.

Worst case, I guess, is I try, hopefully learn something, and move on to plan b.

-J

Being it is only a $20.00 kitCould you by another kit and use what is good form the old?

George

Johnny, some of the models we see on those forums look worse than that completed, so don't lose the spirit! The big question is: did it already cure? Give it a day or two just to be sure. What I would do next would be to take a flexible steel ruler or a piece of copper sheet metal to serve as an edge and rescribe the panel lines, make them a little on the heavy side. The Olfa PC-S plastic knife could be perfect for this job. A nice awl could help you to deepen the rivets a little bit. After that, wet-sand the surface to remove the "bumps", and any dents that are left could be filled with Mr. Surfacer 500. Then just run the awl lightly along the panel lines to remove the sanding dust and that should do it. I'd recommend trying to keep the working area outside of the wing fold, same with painting. This way even if the shade of the paint differs a little, it still wouldn't look totally unrealistic.

To give you a little inspiration, let me post a picture of a Beaufighter here. I was about ten when I got that kit first - it was made in the USSR. Of course I glued it together as good as I could, then I painted it with automotive paints - blue and silver. Then I hung it under the ceiling and it dangled there in the sunlight for like twenty years. It was a royal glue bomb! I don't like throwing away models, so one day I gave it a complete makeover - removed the paint with drain cleaner, sanded and rescribed the whole thing. And I had to vacform my own canopies, because the old parts were shot. I'm a little sorry, that I don't have the "before" shot, but now it looks like that:

So - good luck with your build and have a nice day!

Paweł

Thanks Pawel

Gnarly...

If you have ideas about how to fix, I'm all ears. I'm sure it's possible, but it seems like it would be a project, especially with the goal of getting it really clean. 

Thanks!
-J

Hello Johnny!

Sorry to hear about your trouble! Good thing you're holding on. Please check that wing one more time - lacquer thinner evaporates, and sometimes it takes a little time, but after two or three days the plastic is hard again, so you could try sanding and re-scribing those panels. It would be a real pity to waste all that god work you did so far. Can you post some pics of the damage? Maybe I could give you a few tips for saving it? Anyhow - good luck with your build and I hope you have a nice Wildcat completed soon! Have a nice day

Paweł

New Year's update

Wherein we learn an Important Lesson about the order of events and the properties of lacquer thinner. 

I wasn't happy with the paint job of the leading edges of the wings (the line between the top and bottom was too sharply demarcated and not in quite the right place) so I decided to fix. I carefully masked the rest of the model, being mindful of not letting the tape touch the decals, and resprayed. Naturally, I wasn't quite careful enough, because a bit of masking tape snagged the corner of one decal, and the other one took a hit from overspray. Ugh.

Lesson 1: Be sure you are happy with the paint job before applying decals

I figured, "no problem, I'll just scrape off and throw down spares."

After much careful scraping with soapy water, micro-set, and a lot of swearing, I decided to bring out bigger guns. First windex, then mineral spirits and finally lacquer thinner. "Lacquer thinner", I reasoned with myself, "is the serious stuff. It'll take off the paint, but whatever, I'll just repaint the wings and then we're off to the races." 

The more experienced among us are probably chuckling to themselves about now, seeing where this is headed.

Lacquer thinner does a really good job of taking off decals. Yay. And paint. Okay. And it melts plastic. 

Bummer. 

Lesson 2: do not use lacquer thinner on plastic

Mrs. 1000 came home from the gym and immediately noticed that the house reeked of chemicals, that I was not paying attention to the kids, and that I seemed a bit glum. 

All those lovely details on the port wing are mush. I looked at rescribing and trying to resurrect the rivet detail, but even after 24 hours the plastic is mushy. Even if I could repair the damage, the solvent will keep eating at it for who knows how long.

After much consideration, I decided to salvage the parts worth salvaging and extractable (engine, landing gear, horizontal stablizers and rudder) and start over with the air frame. A new kit is en route and I'll pick up once I've made some progress.

I will finish this model.

In the meantime, I spent some time looking over our entrepid hero, Lt (now Major!) Stub's ride from summer '44--the legendary F4U-1a, from his tour in VMF-115--and spent most of the afternoon scratch building a new landing gear lever box to replace the underdetailed one that comes in the Tamiya 1/48 kit. Will post about that seperately.

For now, I leave you with an ad from the March 1942 issue of Aero magazine courtesy of Mrs 1000, who isn't quite sure what to make of this new incarnation of my rolling midlife crisis, but has noticed that I've spent quite a lot of time and energy on a little Wildcat.

Happy new year everyone!

-J

Thanks all. Very kind.

Two steps forward...

One step back...

I was hoping to get this wrapped up before Christmas. (I was hoping to get this wrapped up before Thanksgiving...)

I'm on the scenic route, I guess. Maybe before New Years.

Happy holidays!

-J

This is a really nice build Johnny. I really enjoyed working on this kit. In fact, I have a JPS -3 conversion that is for the Tamiya kit that I hope to get around to one day. Fatherhood has been the priority as of late. Your scratchbuilding is fun to watch as well. Very clever stuff with the cowl flaps. I especially like to see extra attention to the control surfaces like the elevators and rudder (they never seem to get any love do they).

Looking forward to seeing the rest. =]

Great looking Wildcat!  I look forward to seeing it finished. 

Thanks USMC93. 

I managed to sneak in a few hours this weekend, so a quick update. 

I finally got the camo on. After a lot of back and forth, I decided that pre-shading isn't for me, at least for this build. I instead opted for a bit of subtle post shading and building up color in layers with variation. It's probably a bit too subtle. I might mess with it a bit more. I need to touch up spots on the camo (on the cowl, for instance, see below). I'm also hoping to get more variation, along with selective panel line detail with a wash, or washes. 

Engine on, landing gear press fit.

As a kid, I never understood why anyone would pay perfectly good money for resin wheels. When I started this project, I still didn't understand. However, in my research, I found a photo of a Wildcat from VMF-121 at Cactus clearly showing knobby tires, so I dutifully ordered the appropriate resin AM (I forget which, will update).

After priming, I sprayed a coat of XF-69, NATO black (I'm loving this for most black duties) lightened with a drop or two of XF-2, and then the lightest mist of XF57 buff mixed with a bit of XF20 medium grey. I'll probably dust them up a bit more with pastels, and then once I get a wash going in the crevices, I think they'll look really good.

You can't see it in this pic because the hilights are blown out, but I picked out the oleo on the struts with X11 chrome silver. Despite being a tiny detail, it kind of makes it for me.

I've also almost got the prop done. I'll hopefully the decals, general weathering and canopy going soon.

Thanks for looking.

-J

Looking really cool, love all the modifications you have made!

Thanks so much. I really appreciate the positive feedback.

I got my spray booth and bucket filter built. I call it "the contraption". I didn't document, but it was pretty easy to do and seems to work well. I got it primed with Tamiya grey primer and no complaints from anyone about fumes. I can post something with pics in the appropriate forum if there's interest.

I'm about ready to paint the airframe with actual paint in '42 PTO camo. Now if only I can find a few unallocated hours...

-J

Oops, double post.

-BD-

This really nice work.  Great update on your WIP build.

Toshi

That's looking great! I have one of these on the shelf of doom, and it's nowhere near as nice as yours, haha.

I can't wait to see your next updates.

-BD-

Very impresive for being away for so long.  Now you are giving me the itch to add a 'cat to the stash, only a little bigger version.

Wow, you are doing a great job with this and what a family history connection.

Mike

It is great to see an update from you. And what an update it is. Very impressive rivet work and your solution to the rudder is well done. I'm really looking forward to seeing some paint on this. Excellent work my friend.

I can sympathize with your spraying of enamel paints issue. Fortunately I have a spray booth that greatly minimizes the odor impact in our small house. I'm just kind of attached to enamel paints. I like how they spray and I'm partial to the finish they provide.

So... what with one thing or another, the remedial items have taken me three weeks to get through, but I think I may actually be moving on. 

First up, rivets. I used Archer resin rivets to restore some of the rivet detail. The big line across the body took me four tries to get straight enough. I did, however, eventually learn a valuable lesson about making sure that decals are dry before applying Microsol. The spacing isn't exactly right either, but hopefully won't be noticable when they're the same color as the body. There's also some on the wing near where I filled the drop tank holes which I did apply individually to match the spacing.

I was going to do each of the plates all the way down, but decided this falls under the category of "life is short." 

My "clever" idea of turning the rudder by scoring the tabs and then regluing in place did not work. The work around was to use .031 brass rod as a pin at the bottom, and then cement at the top. That seems to be okay.

More rivets on the horizontal stablizers. There was a gap from cutting the elevators to drop them that looked unnatural, which I filled with .030 stock. Smoothing that in naturally obliterated all the detail on the stablizer, so I rescribed the lines and added rivets. I also managed to ding around the hinges, but hopefully they'll look okay when painted.

Fumes from spraying lacquers, such as Tamiya primer, were bugging my wife. I spray in an unfinished storage room in the basement which is right underneath the master bedroom bathroom, and the fumes were wandering up into the bedroom and my kid's room (old house). Acrylics seem to be fine, but laquers not so much.

My work area is below grade and there aren't any windows, just storm doors I can open in warm weather, so I've pulled together the stuff to make a spray booth and filter to try to contain the worst of it. Hopefully tonight I'll get that built and then tomorrow I'm back in business priming and actually painting this little monster.

(I'm sure I'll discover all manner of ways to overthink that as well, but one thing at a time.)

As always, thanks for looking. 

-J

Joe and Joe

Thanks so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the encouragement and support. I haven't had a chance to get back to it in a bit, but will hopefully will get some work in this week.

There's a few remedial items (finishing cleaning up that join and restoring rivet detail, cleaning up around the machine gun tubes, fixing a gap between the horizontal stablizer and elevators, etc) that need to be addressed before finally moving on to painting the airframe. 

Best

-J